September 25, 2013
Chariho Middle School
CT: Stephen Cormier
7th/8th Grade Science
Observation/Reflection #1: Starting From the Beginning
How a teacher greets students, takes care of logistics, and begins his or her lessons is CRUCIAL! During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CT before class begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson? Is the approach your CT used during this lesson consistent with what you read in "Teach Like a Pirate."
Observation:
Before any class began, my cooperating teacher would be cleaning from the previous class or preparing items for the upcoming lesson. He would allow students to filter into the classroom. Students then took their seats and talked quietly at their tables. My cooperating teacher grabbed their attention by distributing and explaining that day's "balanced warm-up," which includes a series of objective questions taken from released NECAP and other standardized state assessments that addresses content from previous grades. After reviewing the warm-up, my cooperating teacher had students take out their homework. He put a copy up on the SmartBoard and proceeded to go over the answers with the students.
Because my cooperating teacher is on a split-team, he has a mix of seventh and eighth grade classes. The eighth grade class at 9:15 AM worked in their table groups to complete six inquiry stations designed to help students recall previous knowledge about forces. The 10:05 AM seventh grade class began a lab that required them to determine the density of three liquid samples in order to find which sample might be pure water. After reviewing the warm-up exercise, my cooperating teacher had the students write down the lesson's "focus question," or the theme of that lesson or lab investigation. The eighth grade class was asked, "What can you observe about forces?" while the seventh graders needed to answer, "Which liquid is most likely water?" for their lab. Students worked in their activities, recorded data, and constructed responses based on Chariho Middle School's science acronym "RACES" (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain, and Summarize). They worked until the end of the class block, when my cooperating teacher wrapped up the lesson.
Reflection:
Although my cooperating teacher did not display the theatrics and incredible energy described by Dave Burgess in his book, "Teach Like a Pirate," he did demonstrate good classroom management skills and has a clear passion for the subject of science. Warm-ups are an effective way to have students come to class and immediately work with a sense of purpose. The warm-up should tie into the lesson later in class so as to activate prior background knowledge the students may possess, and facilitate construction of facts. My cooperating teacher's warm-ups not only cover the primary concept in that day's lesson, but activates prior knowledge from previous classes and grades. Another good classroom management practice is effective monitoring of student work. My cooperating teacher accomplishes this by having the students use the RACES acronym in order to construct quality responses to scientific problems and improve their technical writing ability. If they adhere to RACES, my cooperating teacher should not have to continually ask for things like clearly stated hypotheses and use of data in citations. The components that comprise RACES are entirely expected in the student's work, and the student understands clearly.
Since the warm-ups are in the form of objective multiple-choice questions, my cooperating teacher has the students write a short response regarding their reasons for the answer they selected. This shows good use of assessment, as the students will be able to demonstrate their thinking and not only recall a fact. The students will also think about their answer and provide a opportunity for self-reflection and metacognitive analysis, so they will be able to improve their critical thinking in the future. My cooperating teacher further use the warm-up responses to examine a student's analysis for any conceptual misconceptions. Looking for student misconceptions about content is a great teacher attribute, as the teacher will be able to facilitate student reconciliation of scientific fact with inaccurate framing beliefs. My cooperating teacher can then in the future offer experiences that can address these misconceptions in order to have the students construct a new, more accurate scientific knowledge. "Taking Science to School" advocates this learning theory of using jarring experiences to upend a student's personal paradigm, so that they can grow as a learner and incorporate the new knowledge.
My cooperating teacher is an ideal role model on classroom management and for learning how to understand the thought process of a middle level science student.
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September 25, 2013Chariho Middle School
CT: Stephen Cormier
7th/8th Grade Science
Observation/Reflection #1: Starting From the Beginning
How a teacher greets students, takes care of logistics, and begins his or her lessons is CRUCIAL! During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CT before class begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson? Is the approach your CT used during this lesson consistent with what you read in "Teach Like a Pirate."Observation:
Before any class began, my cooperating teacher would be cleaning from the previous class or preparing items for the upcoming lesson. He would allow students to filter into the classroom. Students then took their seats and talked quietly at their tables. My cooperating teacher grabbed their attention by distributing and explaining that day's "balanced warm-up," which includes a series of objective questions taken from released NECAP and other standardized state assessments that addresses content from previous grades. After reviewing the warm-up, my cooperating teacher had students take out their homework. He put a copy up on the SmartBoard and proceeded to go over the answers with the students.
Because my cooperating teacher is on a split-team, he has a mix of seventh and eighth grade classes. The eighth grade class at 9:15 AM worked in their table groups to complete six inquiry stations designed to help students recall previous knowledge about forces. The 10:05 AM seventh grade class began a lab that required them to determine the density of three liquid samples in order to find which sample might be pure water. After reviewing the warm-up exercise, my cooperating teacher had the students write down the lesson's "focus question," or the theme of that lesson or lab investigation. The eighth grade class was asked, "What can you observe about forces?" while the seventh graders needed to answer, "Which liquid is most likely water?" for their lab. Students worked in their activities, recorded data, and constructed responses based on Chariho Middle School's science acronym "RACES" (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain, and Summarize). They worked until the end of the class block, when my cooperating teacher wrapped up the lesson.
Reflection:
Although my cooperating teacher did not display the theatrics and incredible energy described by Dave Burgess in his book, "Teach Like a Pirate," he did demonstrate good classroom management skills and has a clear passion for the subject of science. Warm-ups are an effective way to have students come to class and immediately work with a sense of purpose. The warm-up should tie into the lesson later in class so as to activate prior background knowledge the students may possess, and facilitate construction of facts. My cooperating teacher's warm-ups not only cover the primary concept in that day's lesson, but activates prior knowledge from previous classes and grades. Another good classroom management practice is effective monitoring of student work. My cooperating teacher accomplishes this by having the students use the RACES acronym in order to construct quality responses to scientific problems and improve their technical writing ability. If they adhere to RACES, my cooperating teacher should not have to continually ask for things like clearly stated hypotheses and use of data in citations. The components that comprise RACES are entirely expected in the student's work, and the student understands clearly.
Since the warm-ups are in the form of objective multiple-choice questions, my cooperating teacher has the students write a short response regarding their reasons for the answer they selected. This shows good use of assessment, as the students will be able to demonstrate their thinking and not only recall a fact. The students will also think about their answer and provide a opportunity for self-reflection and metacognitive analysis, so they will be able to improve their critical thinking in the future. My cooperating teacher further use the warm-up responses to examine a student's analysis for any conceptual misconceptions. Looking for student misconceptions about content is a great teacher attribute, as the teacher will be able to facilitate student reconciliation of scientific fact with inaccurate framing beliefs. My cooperating teacher can then in the future offer experiences that can address these misconceptions in order to have the students construct a new, more accurate scientific knowledge. "Taking Science to School" advocates this learning theory of using jarring experiences to upend a student's personal paradigm, so that they can grow as a learner and incorporate the new knowledge.
My cooperating teacher is an ideal role model on classroom management and for learning how to understand the thought process of a middle level science student.